Our Rivers Running Through It

Many cities are built near the intersection of waterways with transportation corridors. Historically, the two - water and transportation routes - were often one and the same. Hence many memorable urban vistas today are framed by water. In earlier times water was a source of factory power and a crude discharge route for commercial waste. Waterfronts were not the most scenic vistas of a city. Now cities are attentive to the enjoyment of waterways, and their attractiveness as much as their necessity. Tourism and community identity are often tied together with the embrace of the water by a city - I think of Wilmington, NC's Cape Fear River alongside downtown, or Shockoe Slip along the James in Richmond, VA, and San Antonio, TX's River Walk. A regional town well-admired (if not outright envied) is Greenville, SC, which took the falls of the Reedy River - the power source of a century ago - and made the area around it into a wooded park, an urban strollway, the venue of their performing arts center, and the site of a dramatically designed pedestrian bridge which celebrates the possibilities of place.

I have often thought it would have been nice had the Moravian founders of Winston-Salem located the main town of Wachovia settlement along the banks of the Yadkin rather than on one of the three forks of Muddy Creek. I think that way until flood season, of course, when I'm reminded that topography can make not all rivers equal blessings to their neighbors. Unusual Iowa floods this week show that some floodplains are just too easily breached to make of waterfronts a full community embrace. Levees and floodwalls have to trump aesthetics. My vacation memory of Columbus, OH will be of an impressive city hall statue of the city's namesake overlooking what appeared to be a large concrete culvert snaking through town. I didn't know at the the time that floods had been such a problem on the Scioto River that the 1993 floodwall had been hailed as rescuing the development prospects of the westside Franklinton neighborhood. I only knew the 2003 drought made the concrete-lined riverbed a disruption to a pleasant urban sunset.

Winston-Salem's downtown has two main transportation arteries running through it: the north-south US 52, and the east-west Business 40 interstate. These roads frame the downtown view for guests and residents. We can treat them with utility in mind only, as our forefathers did once out of necessity with rivers. Or we can fashion transportation corridors for both beauty and utility. More easily than with a natural riverbed, we can alter topography on a roadway, predict and channel traffic flow. And if the general boundaries of where our roadways will be are set, their presentation through our urban heart is not. The first two photos of Greenville's Reedy River Falls are from the Falls Park website, as recommended by friend and former Greenville reference librarian Bill McRee. The Columbus skyline, along a more full Scioto River, is from the City utility department's Franklinton floodwall page. The Ponte Vecchio, below on the Arno, is both a place of maximized utility and a lasting symbol of beautiful Florence, Italy (and it's near, btw, both a great history of science museum and the restaurant where this southern blogger first tasted tortellini in 1982, long before it was an item in the local supermarket...)

Of Legacy and Livability

Why take extra time, spend money, on making the design of Business 40 better, more attractive? It's actually something many communities have found helpful when they update their transportation corridors and assess the impacts of construction projects. Since 2001 Forsyth County and its eight municipalities have been evaluating growth and construction in light of its Legacy Development Guide. One of the ten guiding principles of Legacy is to "Promote Design Excellence": encourage high standards of design in new development and redevelopment that create distinctive places and a sense of community. As the first three principles of Legacy are to "develop vibrant city and town centers," to "create pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods," and to "provide real transportation choices," the Business 40 corridor reconstruction can certainly demonstrate the impact of Legacy in the choices we make in 2008 and beyond versus those made nearly sixty years ago.

The American Institute of Architects Communities by Design "10 Principles for Livable Communities" are an even broader statement of best practices from the national design community. "Design excellence is the foundation of successful and healthy communities." Haphazard urban sprawl tends almost always to look similar. Places with distinctive urban landscapes - the recent heatwave here makes me think of Savannah's stately urban squares - were designed and have been preserved by intention.

"I'll have what they're having": Here's my ask for NCDOT and the Community

Arriving in today's email is this news from the city of Seattle: 4Culture and the King County Department of Transportation Road Services Division are seeking a United States artist as design team member on the South Park Bridge Replacement Project. The qualified applicant will have experience working in design team collaborations for large, transportation infrastructure projects and or specifically bridge projects, with additional experience working with Landmark structures. The selected artist will be asked to realize innovative solutions respectful of local historic context within a culturally and economically diverse community. The selected artist shall receive a Design Contract for $60,000. Upon proposal review and approval the artist shall be awarded a contract for Commissioned Artwork for $240,000 plus applicable construction credits. King County is considering a replacement bridge that would cost in the range of $74-$90 million.

Folks ask me what should we ask for, aesthetically, on this Business 40 project. It would be nice if the City of the Arts had the trifecta in place for all its public art opportunities: a steady funding stream (filled in many arts-conscious communities by a percent-for-art program); a professional process for the hiring of public art and design talent and the strategic siting of their work (filled in many arts-conscious communities by a paid public arts administrator or public design commission); and a governmental process for airing community hopes and concerns for the public art and design projects that share their space. The City-County Planning Department has just started such a citizen committee to review public arts gifts after my neighborhood, West End, offered a sculpture to the town at the conclusion of the city's last ARTSfest celebration jointly with the event's other co-sponsors. But, the truth is, we just do not have all the parts of a long-term process for public art and design in place in Winston-Salem; and they may not be in place before Business 40 plans need to be set.

The Business 40 project, however, affords a way to meet all three of those public art process needs itself, and can serve as a catalyst for finishing local long-term process considerations. A dedicated portion of federal highway monies (1-2% of an estimated $100 million) must be spent on beautification of the route, and hiring design and artist advice at the beginning of the roadway process can be a more effective way of creating beauty than adding shrubs, doo-dads, and light fixtures at the end of the process. Secondly, NCDOT already has experience working with outside consultants on other transportation projects around the state to improve their aesthetics, if not yet in Winston-Salem. And finally, NCDOT already has scheduled the forming of community bridge design teams to gather input on the layout and appearance of the roadway bridges from citizens. The current Business 40 project is already setting a high bar for effort in gathering community concerns; adding community aspirations shouldn't be that difficult. The process elements are here, folks, if we will just ask for them. I'm asking NCDOT that they make a national search for an artist to be an integral part of the design team of this roadway from the start. By adding an experienced transportation corridor artist/designer to the Business 40 team, NCDOT can offer the community some aesthetic choices for the new roadway, not just alternative bypass routes. I want our place to give itself the chance to see some of what's possible within a budget. And what's more possible if we as a city find ideas worthy of extra funds.

What might come of the effort? A postcard-view bridge opportunity at Peters Creek, with stadium and skyline in the background. A chance for a fun pedestrian bridge at Green Street. A way to knit back neighborhoods torn apart by the initial build of the road nearly sixty years ago. Symbolic reminders of things found in our place shown right along the roadway. Showing travelers that they are driving on a dash that separates old Winston from old Salem. Or a corridor driving experience that in its styling and details will feel different in such a way as to mark our place special.

I'm no artist. The choices in my brain only mimic other places in the way ideas for interior design at Home Depot and Lowe's always fall in certain style baskets. But if I want my house to reflect me, my priorities, and sense of style, I'll hire a professional designer, and not just order from the catalog.

Even in the City of the Arts, which so values design and creativity in many ways, we do not live in a perfect public art world. Let's not make the perfect the enemy of the better. Let's ask for more than interchangeable interstate concrete. Let's support transportation engineers doing their work with design and art professionals adding their talents as well. Ask for more from our transportation and community leaders - not more money, but more design and artist input. I confidently expect that NCDOT will deliver us a good roadway. But I want us to ask for something better, something more. I'll have what they're having.

Carpe Viam

Probably the most famous bridge in the state of North Carolina is the Linn Cove Viaduct, a serpentine embrace of the slope of Grandfather Mountain installed along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the early 1980s. Although the technical challenges of traversing the site could have been made easier with road cuts and strategic mountain blasts, the bridge designers, Figg Engineering Group, seized the opportunity to make an aesthetic statement with the highway and to work with the landscape rather than simply conquer it. Blending iron oxides into the concrete, the team even "painted" its building materials to more closely resemble the granite of the rock face on which the bridge rests.

The city of Asheville sits in a high valley surrounded by mountain crests. When the I-240 thoroughfare into the city was completed a few years back, engineers sacrificially blasted through one wall of mountain encircling the city. But the highway awkwardly merged with the town's main east-west local street. The subsequent completion of north-south Interstate 26 offered the city a chance to connect the two interstates near the French Broad River running through town, relieving pressure on downtown traffic. The initial drawings from transportation officials for the I-26 connector offered several options to the city. But to many in the local design community, the plans were unnecessarily complex and wasteful in their use of city space, as well as being visually unappealing.

A local group of architects and design friends, aided by a grant from the American Institute of Architects 150th Anniversary Celebration, pooled their talents and formed the Asheville Design Center. They rented a downtown storefront, offered volunteer hours, canvassed community concerns, created a three-dimensional model where citizens could visualize alternate routes, and came up with their own set of technical concerns and aesthetic opportunities they wanted the project to address. The biggest concern was to reduce the amount of scarce lands lost to exit and entrance ramps in the official plans. When locals suggested a double-decker roadway in strategic points and a single bridge instead of two, area friend Figg Engineering Group (of Linn Cove fame) offered up a design for a two-story bridge that will solve the technical needs of the I-26 Connector and give the city a beautiful new postcard view, uniting river, mountains, and city skyline with a stylistic statement that will say that place does things differently and more beautifully.

Asheville's experience on the I-26 Connector has changed the way dialog about transportation projects and potentials is approached in that community. Both transportation officials and community leaders have new insights on the benefits of working together. NCDOT is already making great efforts in Winston-Salem to collect community concerns in the upcoming Business 40 project, and our strong local transportation and planning agencies are anxious to put their good talents to the technical challenges ahead. But Winston-Salem has yet to pull together its creative design resources, its priorities for beauty and self-statement, in addition to those technical requirements that a new urban roadway must meet. The picture below shows the new downtown baseball park just to the west of Winston-Salem's skyline, alongside the Business 40 corridor (at photo right) that will soon be re-designed. We have an opportunity to add beauty as well as improve the function of this roadway. Will we as a community "seize the day" of this opportunity? Will we, in essence, "seize the roadway," and make it uniquely our own?

Call for Entries: "Creative Bridge Design" Art Exhibition in September

The art exhibit "Creative Bridge Design" will take place Tuesday, September 16th and run until September 30th at the DADA Center in the Downtown Art District. The art exhibit is to inspire and motivate both the Winston-Salem Community and funders of the Business 40 Project to incorporate public art into the Business 40 Bridges. The presenting of local artists’ works and designs of innovative bridge design will be among the first visual models to present to the public and NCDOT for the Business 40 Bridges. It will be a chance for the Community, the Arts, and the State to work side by side on a large scale project that will heighten the city’s development and identity as the “City of the Arts”.

This community arts project is open to local artists, architects, engineers, and designers that are 18 & older ("local" meaning Forsyth County and other artists who are able to "hand deliver" their artworks matted or framed to DADA Center by the 5th of September). Artworks will range from drawings, both artistic and technical, painting, watercolor, photography, graphics, and 3D. Artwork should illustrate in some form a cultural connection to the Winston-Salem community. Imagine new symbols and artistic expression to represent Winston-Salem. Final deadline will be September 5th. Purpose of exhibition will not be to sell artwork, but inquiries may be made and passed onto the artists. The "Creative Bridge Design" art exhibition is the continuation of the Community Arts Forum held April 22, 2008 at Green St. United Methodist Church with guest panelists Thorns Craven, Eric Elliott, and Mark Leach discussing public art’s impact on community and city development.

Additional information on the Business 40 Project and Public Art can be found at http://www.business40nc.com or http://winstonsalempublicart.blogspot.com. For further information on the "Creative Bridge Design" art exhibition, contact Katie Gunter at gunterk7@gmail.com

Introducing the Public Art and Design Committtee

The Public Art and Design Committee has been working within the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County since 2004, first under the leadership of art professor David Finn and currently led by attorney Thorns Craven. It follows an earlier Mayor's Task Force on Public Art assembled in 2000, led by neighborhood advocate Eric Elliott. The committee has worked to add new public art in the downtown landscape; assisted Wal-Mart as they worked with a local artist in the production and installation of sculpture and a gazebo at their Peters Creek location; and is investigating possibilities for funding and processing art acquisitions by public and private entities in the area with the assistance of Chapel Hill's Gerald Bolas, past interim director of SECCA. Though the group lacks a formal budget and depends on volunteer time, they are knowing and active advocates of the value of a better-designed cityscape, of which the insights and inspirations of public artists can play an important part.

The re-design of the front room of our shared Winston-Salem house - the renewal of our downtown transportation corridors - is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make improvements both functional and aesthetic to our town. When you re-do the interior of your home kitchen, you want all the function a kitchen needs. But because you live there, you want it to be a place of beauty as well. Why not add beauty to the function of our city's major roadways? The current committee consists of: Thorns Craven, Chair, Attorney, Mediation, Inc.; Nick Bragg, Former Director, Reynolda House; Eric Elliott, Past President, West End Association; David Finn, Artist and Professor of Art, Wake Forest University; Tripp Greason, Attorney, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice; Glynis Jordan, Deputy Director, City-County Planning; Mark Leach, Director, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art; Carroll Leggett, Ralph Simpson & Associates; Doug Lewis, Southeast Gateway Council, and Past Chair, Community Appearance Commission; Duncan Lewis, Sculptor and Adjunct Professor, Salem College; Leo Morrissey, Assistant Professor of Art, Winston-Salem State University; Mary Elizabeth Parks, Executive Director, North Carolina Stroke Association; Milton Rhodes, President and CEO, Arts Council Winston-Salem/Forsyth County; Sandra Romanac, Calibre, Inc.; Greg Shelnutt, Director of Visual Arts, North Carolina School of the Arts; Ralph Simpson, President, Ralph Simpson & Associates; Carol Strohecker, Director, Center for Design Innovation; Belinda Tate, Director, Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University; Bill Watkins, Architect, W. R. Watkins Architecture; Keith Wilson, Architect, Calloway Johnson Moore and West.

Business 40: Our Workhorse, also Our Canvas?

Business 40 has been the workhorse thoroughfare of commuters and visitors to Winston-Salem since being built as our "downtown expressway" in the 1950s. The planned rebuilding of eight overpass bridges at the heart of this roadway gives us a unique opportunity to design not just a functioning roadway but also a new series of vistas and impressions about our place and its sense of self. Community meetings about the rebuilding will be held starting in 2008, as neighbors along the route share their hopes and concerns for the project. You can find updates on the public meeting schedule at this website.

We hope that neighbors and other community members will ask transportation and political decision-makers that the project be designed both for engineering traffic needs and for its artistic impression-making potentials. "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."